Saturday, August 6, 2016

Reflections on St Dominic (6) - The Dominican Family

Through the window of our refectory I saw
how our youngest Sister has planted a variety of flowers in the shape of 800, and
it is exactly what we are as we celebrate our 800 Anniversary as Dominicans.
Each Sister and Brother whom God has called to our family has shaped our Order
day by day by their lives.

Dominic placed so much trust and
confidence in his companions. He was profoundly a man of God, convinced that
the hand of God lay upon everything and everyone. His own vocation as a
preacher he discovered from being attentive to the needs of others. He was so
open to listen to God speaking to him through the lives of others.

Dominic knew that those who came to join him
were called by the Lord and that the Lord was speaking to them. If others were
called to join Dominic in his dream then some system had to be devised which
respected both the freedom of God to speak as He wishes and the freedom of each
to express their understanding of what God was saying to each personally.

Dominic’s vision, his inspiration is
communicated to his brethren in such a way that it becomes the creation of all.
He inspired others by sharing his vision and allowing it to take root and
mature in them in such a manner that it seems to come as much from them as from
him.

In his family everyone becomes a builder,
everyone must share in the task of construction, and is encouraged to offer
his/her own personal contribution.

Dominic never put himself in the centre, he
emptied himself, and that emptiness invites
Christ to be a centre of his own life and the life of his community.

When Dominic had only sixteen brothers, he
sent them to Paris, Spain
and Rome. In
human eyes it seemed that he was tearing down what he had laboriously built,
destroying the Order he had just founded. But he had the supernatural prudence that comes from the Holy Spirit ‘Seed rots when it is hoarded, bears fruit when
it is sown.’ Dominicans were for the Church. Our lives are shaped by the Church’s
needs.

The following quotation from Becoming Human by Jean Vainer is relevant here:

A place of mediation is that place where we are and can
search for truth together, where we find healing for our hearts that are
incapable of relating to others in a healthy way, where we can learn not to be
locked up in our own needs and desires, but welcome others as they are, accept
that they are important and have value. The place of mediation helps us to
discover that we are part of something much bigger, that together we can do
something beautiful.

Our awareness that we are loved and accepted
by our God, that truth is what allows us to be preachers of God’s Mercy and
Compassion. And we first learn it in our communities and then share it with the
whole world.

When fr.Bruno our Master last week was in Krakow on the WYD, he was asked the question: What do
Dominicans have to preach today for the Youth? He answered that we first need
to listen to them and after, to preach and to share with them our experience of
life. To think together, how to build a better world today - not individual
world but a world where we can BE together. Church – He said - is our common home

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Vocation Weekends

Whom do you seek?

We seek God, Who alone gives meaning to our lives. Communion with Christ and with one another in love, through a life of prayer centred on Jesus, the Word of God and on the Eucharist, is the focus of our community life.

Single young women attracted to this way of life are welcome to contact us and we will arrange for a visit or some days in our retreat house - either at weekend or during the week. If a few are interested at same time, and if agreeable to all, we can also arrange for a group to spend a few days together.